America's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

What is an entrepreneur made of? Tow parts dreamer, three parts risk-taker, four parts leader and five parts ego.

It's probably a good thing that less than 2 percent of our population harbors these ingredients. I thought it might be educational to take a look at the ones who have taken the combination to gourmet levels: America's most successful entrepreneurs.

If we use net worth as our gauge of success, Forbes.com's 400 Richest Americans is a good place to start looking:

Name 1. Gates, William H. III 2. Ellison, Lawrence 3. Allen, Paul 4. Buffet, Warren 5. Moore, Gordon 6. Anschutz, Phillip 7. Ballmer, Steven 13. Dell, Michael 14. Redstone, Summer 15. Kluge, John

Billions $63 $58 $36 $28 $26 $18 $17 $16 $14 $13

Age 44 56 47 70 71 60 44 35 77 47

Status married single single married married married married married married married

Source Microsoft Oracle Microsoft Stock Market Intel Qwest Microsoft Dell Computers Viacom Metromedia

Numbers 8 through 12 I disqualified because they were all Waltons. They inherited their money from Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton. They each have a net worth of $17 billion.

This list is definite ammunition for the white-guy-basher leagues; no women, no minorities and oh, so much money--$289 billion dollars. With the Waltons, it totals $374 billion.

There are interesting facts in the bios. Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen and Michael Dell all dropped out of college. That's four out of the five younger boys. Steven Ballmer and the rest of the over-60 crowd graduated with a bachelor's, master's or law degree.

Take a look at how many of them are involved in technology. That is a rather strong hint for our more ambitious youth.

Larry Ellison is probably the most controversial fellow of the bunch. He is flamboyant, outspoken and widely known for his quick temper. He was raised in a lower-class neighborhood on Chicago's Southside. After he dropped out of college, he went to California, held several IT jobs and finally co-founded Oracle with two other people. He has a passionate dislike for Bill Gates and Microsoft. According to Forbes, Ellison proudly admitted that Oracle paid investigators to root through trash to dig up dirt on Microsoft. He described the Dumpster-diving as a public service.

According to Dell's website, Michael Dell's first venture into direct marketing and sales came in 1977, when at the age of 12 he started a national stamp auction. He earned $2,000. At the age of 15 he got his first computer, an Apple, which he promptly took apart to see how it worked. At age 16, he bought a BMW with the $18,000 he made selling newspaper subscriptions. With an initial investment of $1,000, he started Dell Computers from his dorm room at the University of Texas. When Dell joined the Fortune 500 in 1992, Michael was the youngest CEO of any company ever named to the prestigious list.

Sumner Redstone was raised in Boston's West End in a tenement with no bathroom. Currently, Redstone's vast empire includes Paramount, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Comedy Central, USA, 50 percent of UPN, complete ownership of 11 television stations, publishing house Simon & Schuster, thousands of home-video retail stores and 1,300 movie screens. His latest money battle is with his wife of 53 years. She wants half his fortune in their pending divorce case.

John Kluge was born Sept. 21, 1914 in Chemnitz, Germany. Now he is chairman of New Jersey-based Metromedia International Group Inc., a communications and media company. Metromedia has its fingers in a wide variety of big businesses. Not bad for a young fellow who supplimented his college scholarship by selling shoes, working as secretary and playing poker.

Gordon Moore started Intel in 1968 with the help of Robert Noyce and $2.5 million from venture capitalist Arthur Rock. The firs-year's sales: $3,000. Last year: $29 billion. He is one of the principal backers of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Phillip Anchutz built his empire on oil and gas, real estate, railroads, sports and high tech. He is a Denver-based boy who owns 38 percent of Quest Communications (US West is now Quest. Just call (800) 603-6000 and you can hear the recording).

Bill Gates and Paul Allen were best buddies from the get-go. While growing up, they both attended an exclusive private school in Seattle where they were encouraged to hone their computer skills. Upon completing high school, Gates entered Harvard Law School. He and Allen stayed in close contact. They dreamed of starting a company together. In 1974, on a trip to visit Gates, Allen picked up an issue of Popular Mechanics. On the cover was a picture of the Altier 8080 and the headline, "World's First Micro-computer Kit to Rival Commercial Models."

They called MITS, the makers of the Altair, and told them they had developed a programming code that could be used on the Altair 8080. That was a lie. They spent the next eight weeks with Gates writing code and Allen trying to simulate the Altair on the school's computer. Allen took the software to MITS and entered it into the Altair. It worked flawlessly. Microsoft was born.

Daring? Audacious? Yes! All of these boys are entrepreneurs' entrepreneurs. They are pure studies in capitalism. They are also filthy rich. Happy? I didn't find any of the complaining.